1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for printing one- or two-dimensional barcodes, and a method and program for setting a virtual font for either or both of such barcode symbologies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional one-dimensional barcodes (also referred to as simply “1D barcodes” below) and newer two-dimensional barcodes (referred to as “2D barcodes” below) are commonly used to encode product information printed on a label. Product information for a particular product can then be read by scanning the printed 1D barcode or 2D barcode using a dedicated barcode scanner. Because a large amount of information can be recognized by a computer in a short time by scanning 1D or 2D barcodes with a scanner, barcodes have been applied in many fields other than simply managing product information.
In order to print 1D barcodes using a computer and a printer, the printer driver installed in the computer must instruct the operating system of the computer what barcode fonts are available. These barcode fonts could be stored in ROM in the printer or other storage device accessible to the printer driver. This process enables the barcode fonts to be recognized by the computer as a usable font, and application programs running on the operating system and generating the actual barcode data for printing can therefore use these barcode fonts to generate the barcode data for printing the barcodes. See, for example, Japanese patent document 11-221946A.
FIG. 6 shows an example of a screen in a word processing application program used to generate barcodes. The user enters a character string of information to be converted to a barcode in a data entry area 110 using a keyboard connected to the computer, and generates a data file. A font is selected from a pull-down font menu 120, and the font size is selected from a pull-down font size menu 130. The barcode font known as “JAN13” is selected for the text on the first line in the data entry area 110, and the barcode font known as “JAN8” is selected for the text on the second line. The letter “a” on the third line is known as a control character. This control character “a” indicates that the data strings contained on the following lines (that is, the fourth and following lines in this example) are to be printed without the corresponding HRI (Human Readable Interpretation). This HRI is a text string of the barcode content written in a human readable form.
When the operator then instructs the word processing application program to print the data file, the printer driver receives the data from the operating system (OS), converts the data strings contained in the data file to commands that can be interpreted by the printer according to the printer description language, and outputs the result to the printer. The printer then interprets the received commands, and prints the barcode on the print medium (paper) based on the specified barcode font, font size, and whether the HRI is to be printed.
To print a 2D barcode, a data file for printing a 2D barcode is created using a word processing application program, and a parameter file for setting the 2D barcode parameters is created using a text editor, for example. When the data file created by the word processing application program is then printed, the printer driver receives the data file from the OS. The printer driver then converts the data strings in the data file to commands that can be interpreted by the printer while referencing the predefined parameter file, and outputs to the commands to the printer. The printer then interprets the received commands, and prints the 2D barcode on paper according to the commands.
To change the barcode font, barcode size, or whether the HRI is also to be printed with this configuration requires the user to select a different barcode font from the font menu 120, select a different font size from the font size menu 130, and specify whether to print the HRI. The problem, therefore, is that relatively simple changes require the user to change multiple settings, a task that is repetitive and complicated.
Furthermore, changing the type of 2D barcode and its printing parameters likewise requires setting the font type from the font menu 120, changing the parameter settings in the parameter file and saving the parameter file, or creating a new parameter file. A complicated process is therefore also required to adjust 2D barcode printing.